Sanchez, Tigers miss out on history; 'I think the win is more important than no-hitters'

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez pauses between pitches against the Boston Red Sox in the sixth inning during Game 1 of the American League baseball championship series Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON — Anibal Sanchez was a bit embarrassed after his first postseason start.

The Detroit Tigers’ third ace has nothing to be ashamed of after Saturday’s gem in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

Sanchez became the first pitcher to ever be lifted from a postseason game in the sixth inning or later with a no-hitter intact. He left having struck out more batters in a single playoff game than any Tigers player in 41 years.

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All he needed was the one run his teammates provided him — and three innings of help from the bullpen — to lead the Tigers to a 1-0 win over the Red Sox — even though they missed out on history.

“This series is not about no-hitters ... I think the win is more important than no-hitters at this point,” said Sanchez, who had to sit and watch while his teammates tried to complete what he’d started.

It would have been the first-ever combined no-hitter in MLB postseason history, with efforts from Sanchez and four relievers, but Boston’s Daniel Nava broke up the bid with one out in the ninth. Considering it put the potential tying run on base, it wasn’t like the Tigers had long to agonize over the missed chance.

“Not to refocus, no. I’m not going to lie, when it hit the ground and it was a hit, I would’ve liked to have gotten a no-hitter,” catcher Alex Avila said. “There’s no refocus or anything. It’s 1-0, and the playoffs.

Sanchez’s outing was still the most no-hit innings a pitcher has ever thrown in a playoff game without completing a no-hitter. He became the third pitcher in Tigers history to strike out 12 in a postseason game, but became the second pitcher in MLB postseason history to fan 12 and walk six, joining The Big Train, Walter Johnson, who did it in the 1924 World Series. [FULL PLAY-BY-PLAY]

“Sanchez’s stuff was just flat-out nasty today. To the point where a lot of times I didn’t know where the ball was going to go. Sometimes, it was like set up, and somehow catch the ball. He was a little erratic today, I guess effectively wild. He made some big pitches when he needed to with guys on base,” Avila said. “Without a doubt, he’s got No. 1 stuff. His stuff at times is probably some of the nastiest stuff we have on the team. Today was one of those nights for him.
“His ball had so much action on it, I don’t even think he knew where some of them were going at times. Sometimes I didn’t.
“It worked out in our favor. Obviously walked way too many guys today, but I’ll take it when you make pitches with guys on base like we did today.”

Especially since the Red Sox had no clue where it was going, either.

They drove his pitch count up, as they are wont to do, but that’s about all they accomplished in his six innings.

Along the way, he was getting the Red Sox repeatedly guessing on pitches, checking swings, mumbling at themselves and grousing at home plate umpire Joe West.

“Anytime one of our guys throws a good game, I get that question. Are the hitters frustrated? I always say, ‘I don’t know, because I’m not even looking for that.’ I know how quickly it could change, especially here, especially with that lineup. That is not even in my mind, whether they’re frustrated or not, because I’m solely focused on, ‘OK, what is going to get him out this time around?’ And that’s it,” Avila said.

And facing the highest-scoring team in baseball doesn’t leave an easy feeling, especially with that slim of a margin.

“No, not really,” said manager Jim Leyland, asked if he got caught up in the no-hitter. “No, particularly in a place like this, because you almost feel like you’re behind in this ballpark with one run. With the (Green) Monster ... you never feel comfortable. I wasn’t worried about the no-hitter. It would’ve been nice, but ... it worked out fine for us.”

“I make a lot of mistakes that day, a lot of fly ball, they hit it hard, three homers that day. And I’m back to here just working with mechanics,” Sanchez said. “For me, I more thrown hard. No matter where the ball is going.”

It was an early wild pitch that first got Sanchez in the record books.

He became the first pitcher to strike out four batters in a postseason inning since 1908, when Shane Victorino reached on a third-strike wild pitch in the first inning. Sanchez struck out the other three batters he faced in the inning, becoming the first Tigers pitcher — regular season or postseason — to ever record a four-strikeout inning.

The only previous pitcher to do so in the playoffs was Orval Overall, who did it on Oct. 14, 1908, the day the Cubs last won the World Series. He did it against the Tigers, too, in the second of his two head-to-head matchups with Detroit’s Wild Bill Donovan.

All the strikeouts were forcing Sanchez’s pitch count higher and higher, though.

“It’s a Catch-22. It’s not so valuable, because you don’t get a lot of quick outs, so pitch count goes up,” Leyland said. “But when you get in a jam, they have the capability of striking somebody out.”

That’s what Sanchez had to do to escape his own jam in the sixth. He walked three batters in the inning, two of them with two outs, to load the bases. That left him to face Stephen Drew, trying to preserve the one-run lead his teammates had given him in the top of the inning.

“When I went out there with two outs, I just tried to remind him, ‘One pitch, and you’re out of the inning,’ ” Avila said. “Sometimes, it’ll speed up, and you want to slow it down, focus on that one pitch you have to make, then move to the next one.”

Sanchez struck Drew out, then did a karate-kick, spinning fist-pump in celebration.

“I was really excited at that point,” he admitted, dismissing the idea he tried to talk Leyland into letting him go back out for the seventh, having already thrown 116 pitches.
“No, he told me that my job is done. I say yeah, because even I got a lot of pitch. So I don’t want to rush back (out) just because we got a no-hit. I think they need to bring some fresh arm to get the innings (over) quickly, and get the team — get the win, (which) was what we do today.”

From there, he had to watch four teammates — Al Alburquerque, Jose Veras, Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit — try to finish what he’d started.

It didn’t make it any easier that the Tigers offense only scraped across one run in the top of the sixth. Jon Lester — whose pitch count was rising, too — got himself into an other jam with a walk to Miguel Cabrera before plunking Prince Fielder on the elbow to put two on with one out. Victor Martinez kept the inning alive by beating out the potential double-play relay from second base, and Jhonny Peralta made it meaningful by singling to center field to drive in the game’s first run.

“Both teams were pitching really well. We couldn’t get any runs across the board with a man on third with less than two outs. We couldn’t do it because during the playoffs, there’s great pitching over there. It was tough. It was tough today. It was a battle, one-zip, that’s all I can tell you. That’s crazy. That’s a playoff game,” Torii Hunter said. “All my failures in the postseason, I’ve been to seven postseason, three ALCS, pitching and defense always win games. Offense ain’t nothing. Pitching is always ahead of the offense.”

Alburquerque worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning, then Veras struck out Shane Victorino and Dustin Pedroia to start the eighth. Drew Smyly came on to face David Ortiz, and got him to fly out, leaving the battle to Benoit in the ninth.

He struck out Mike Napoli looking, then gave up Nava’s single to shallow center to end the no-hit bid.

“There’s nothing I can do after that. I make a good pitch and he’s a professional hitter, but I was just trying to get my pitch and he got a good hit. There’s nothing I can do after that,” Benoit said.
“When they’ve got a man on base on first, they have three more bases to score. If I’ve got one out and a man on first, he has to go three bases before I get the three outs, so that’s how I take it.”

Former Tiger Quintin Berry came on as a pinch runner for Nava, and stole second with two outs, but Benoit got Xander Bogaerts to pop out to shortstop to end the game.

“You’re talking about in Fenway, with some of the best fans in baseball, good players over there. To take the first one away from those guys is huge,” Hunter said. “You don’t want those guys to go one-up at home in front of this crowd. They’re crazy.”

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.

About the Author

Detroit Tigers beat writer for The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Michigan. Mowery has spent 18 years covering sports, from preps to pros. He’s been honored with more than 25 awards for writing. Reach the author at matt.mowery@oakpress.com
or follow Matthew B. on Twitter: @MatthewBMowery.